Latent bodyplastic, malleable, inscribed: The human voice, the body and the sound of its transformation through technology

Abstract

This article examines, through the grooves of the record disc as a site, the inscription of the human voice onto the recorded medium, and the way recording technology has changed how the listener hears and comprehends the physical body. Recording technology allowed human presence to be captured onto a concrete and tactile medium, and enabled the material object of the recording to then be bought, consumed and privately owned. The political implications, and reactions, to this cultural paradigm are discussed. The article focuses on contemporary practices in popular music consumption, and observes that, in works that involve the voice, the human body and the material object are bound up in man..